Lesson Learned and Lost:The Story of Thomas Raiaka
by Tommo1
Summary: This story is the history of my RP character that I wanted to write which is set in the Gundam SEED universe - or the future of it. Details of the RP inside. Thomas Raiaka is a Zaft Red Recruit and this is the story of his academy days.
1. Chapter 1

**Cosmic Era 100 : 12th August**

On the year that the main military forces in the world were pretty inactive and everyone was celebrating the first century of the Cosmic Era and everything that had come before a new group of recruits were attending the opening ceremony of the ZAFT Academy on Apprillus Colony.

"On behalf of the staff here at the Academy I would like to welcome you new recruits to the ZAFT Academy stationed here on Apprillus. During you're years here you will learn how to become damn good soldiers of ZAFT. During you're time here I would like each and every one of you to remember why you are here in the first place and what is compelling you to fight for ZAFT for I am not so naive to believe that all of you are here for the sole reason of wanting to defend you're country. Whatever you're reason I can assure you that you will leave this place as competent soldiers of ZAFT ready to fore fill you're purpose. Future soldiers of ZAFT, I salute you." At this the principle of the facility, an old man with white hair who seemed like he had said this speech many times before brought his right hand up and saluted the crowd of 300 or so teenagers that were standing in front of him. Said teenagers then in unison brought their hands up in salute until the old man dropped his.

"You will now be sorted out into the roles that you have applied for and shown to you're dorms." A woman with long red hair and wearing a white and black Captain's uniform shouted. "Reds! You're with me" she shouted again before turning around and walking through a corridor into a much smaller hall. As the students came into the hall she watched them fall into line. A class of exactly 50 recruits stood in front of her. They are all very young she thought to herself although secretly she was thinking that it may have been because she was getting a year older every time she was introduced to a new batch of recruits.

"I am captain Sylvia Maroon and those of you in this room are in line to become ZAFT Reds, just to make sure that each and every one of you knows what this means I will spell it out for you right now. You are to be the best." She paused to let that line sink in. "You will become exceptional soldiers in every form of combat and will eventually become a pilot of a mobile suit. Some of you may even learn skills beyond that." She added in quickly referring to the recently introduced policy of making sure that every soldier was taught basic history, maths and english to make sure that they would never just be mindless soldiers. "As of right now you will be called in twos to the next room to be introduced to you're room mates for the next four years and to make sure we have our records correct. Classes will begin in room 2C47 tomorrow at 09:00 hours. Stand easy until you are called." she informed the students before walking into the next room.

It was all so routine so far until she came to a duo who seemed just a little bit different. In front of her stood two young men. Both were wearing the standard ZAFT Red academy uniform of a white Jacket, white trousers with black boots and red trims along the jacket and a logo signifying that they were part of ZAFT academy on Aprillus. The first recruit there stood out as he had dark orange hair which was long by military standards but not even average length by anyone else's. What was also unusual was that he had green eyes – a rarity in the gene pool in recent times. The second recruit had standard length brown hair and brown eyes and looked average in almost every way. "Names?" Captain Sylvia asked making sure that she had the right records.

"Thomas Raiaka" The orange haired recruit replied calmly.

"James Marshall" The other recruit replied.

"And what are you're reasons for wanting to become ZAFT pilots?"

"I was never really good at anything else and a ZAFT pilot sounds like an exciting life at least" James said. A common response thought the captain. Don't think they can do anything else so become soldiers. She then turned to look at Thomas for his answer.

"To make sure people are shooting at me."

Now this was an interesting answer she thought to herself. "Care to elaborate recruit?"

"My father was a pilot and when I was young I asked him why he had to go and fight. He replied to make sure that people were shooting at him so that the people who could not defend themselves could go on living their lives."

"Trying to aspire to be like a parent can always be a strong motivational factor but I hope that during you're time here you gain a more personal reason to fight. Ryan here will show you yo you're room. Dismissed." She said saluting the two young men. After they had saluted back she watched them walk away, going to have to keep an eye on that one she thought to herself.

Thomas took a step into his new room. The front part was a small kitchen with all the essential stuff with a small bathroom off to the side and 2 beds at the far and of the room each having their own chest of draws and wardrobes.

Thomas walked in and sat down on the bed on the left before facing his new room mate. "So we are room mates, nice to meet you."

"Indeed we are" James replied as he walked in and unceremoniously dumped all of his bags beside his bed. "You fancy heading along to the common room and see if we can meet some people? With a bit of luck some of the girls that were at the induction might be there." He suggested as his average face suddenly changed to having a huge grin on his face

"Nah, I need to unpack mate and get some rest for tomorrow, something tells me we are going to be in for a long day." Thomas replied.

James' grin slowly vanished as the thought of going himself suddenly hit him. "Suit yourself then, see you tomorrow" he said as he walked out the door.

Thomas proceeded to unpack his clothes and put them away inside his new room. He then pulled his chess board out of his bag and slid it underneath his bed. After he was happy with everything in the room and had checked all the appliances in the kitchen and unpacked his laptop and sat with it on his knee on his bed. As he checked the news it looked as though the new space elevators that were just opened this year were becoming more popular and civilians were now allowed to start taking full advantage of the service for a nominal fee. He then looked at the news for the Semptembrius Colony, where his siblings were still living and was not surprised to see that nothing was happening there either. With a yawn he slid his laptop underneath his bed, hung up his uniform and proceeded to fall asleep, wondering what was going to be in store for him tomorrow.

_AN: Just a short chapter to start guys. This story is the history of my RP character from the Long War RP (http://thelongwar./) Thomas Raiaka. I'm doing this to carve out a personality for my character as well as giving him a reason to fight in the future. I've tried to tie it into the history of TLW but also make it an interesting read for anyone whether or not you take part in it. (Although I much suggest you do have a look at TLW if you fancy playing a good RP) Im also going to start putting in music tracks which you may or may not want to listen to in future chapters just to try and further put across the scene I have in my head. Hope you enjoy it when I do!_

_Reviews are also welcome guys._

_Tommo_


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Hey guys here is chapter two of lesson learned and lost. One of the things that has been bugging me is that sometimes this doesn't appear to me too military style enough. However, I cant imagine Lacus Clyne running a typical military training course and this "academy" idea seems much more suited for running an institution of training soldiers that are not just mindless. The angle I'm going for seems to a bit more like SeeDs from final fantasy 8 and organisations of such nature. Any ways here is the next chapter, hope you enjoy._

**Cosmic Era 100 : 13th August 09:00**

It was the next morning now and Thomas was sitting half way from the front of a large lecture hall. The focus point of the lecture hall was an overhead projector right down at the front and had the ZAFT insignia painted onto either side of the room. Apart from that it was extremely plain and white room. The new recruits had just been given their timetables. There was a large groan from all the recruits as they realised what they had in store for them today. An hours of physical training followed by all of their academic subjects. Thomas was right, today was going to be a long day. Most of the recruits did not understand what the point of all of this was, but Thomas had clued in onto it right away.

"They are going to V02 Max us – probably by running a bleep test" he said to himself "and then we are going to be put through all of our academic subjects to see how we think when we are exhausted. Evil bastards."

"Just when my morning couldn't get any worse." Thomas turned around to see James sitting behind him with his hair all over the place and the signs of fluff covering his face.

"Good Morning sleepy head" Thomas said to his room mate. "Glad to see someone finally woke up"

"Yeah well you could of at least woken me up on you're way out, jeez why do I have to be stuck with the anti social guy?"

Thomas smiled, "well that wouldn't of been any fun would it?" Thomas said remembering the state at which his room mate was in when he woke up. James was lying there on his bed head face down on his pillow, still in dress uniform from the night before, as if he had just came in and collapsed straight away.

James just frowned as Thomas and himself stood up to follow everyone towards the physical training area.

10 minutes later the whole class was stood in line outside fully kitted up in their training gear on a 50m running track waiting for their instructor to come out. When said instructor came out he stood in front of the file of recruits just staring, not saying a word, trying to build up some kind of intimidating atmosphere. He was a very heavy, but muscled man with a very short blond hair cut, in fact, if you tried to imagine a typical football coach from back in high school he would probably look like that Thomas thought to himself. "Listen up Maggots!" He finally yelled. "My name is Instructor Omoi, and today I am here to introduce you to what physical training is like in Zaft Academy. All of you maggots are going to run a bleep test to see just how fit you are compared to you're peers." At this there was a large groan from a lot of the students there clearly upset that they had to run a bleep test at this time in the morning.

"Oh brilliant" James just muttered underneath his breath which caused Thomas to chuckle just a little.

"What are you laughing at Red Head?" The instructor shouting at Thomas who he had seen laughing at something.

"Nothing, Sir" Thomas replied.

The instructor narrowed his eyes and stared into Thomas' for a moment and was secretly quite impressed as the teen just maintained a blank persona and didn't flinch or hesitate in the slightest. "What's you're name Red Head?" he finally barked out.

"Thomas Raiaka, Sir"

"Make sure you are not the first to drop out Red Head!" He shouted clearly disregarding the fact that Thomas had just told him his name.

"Yes Sir" Thomas replied trying to keep his persona as passive as possible.

"All right maggots everyone down that end of the field and start running when you hear the beep!"

Thomas and James lined up together and looked straight down the field. "how about a bet?" James said to Thomas before they started.

"Yeah?"

"How about if I beat you, you actually come out to the common room and have a laugh tonight instead of leaving me like a loner."

"And what if I win?" Thomas countered.

James frowned and then came out with. "I'll do one of you're assignments for you when we start getting hit with them."

Thomas thought about it for a minute. He was planning on going out and checking the common room tonight any ways and even if he won there's no way I am letting this guy anywhere near any of my assignments he thought to himself. Guess I'll just humour him. "Yeah all right, You're on" Thomas said with a grin. James just nodded back and smiled as they waited for the instructor to begin the exercise.

"GO!" The instructor shouted suddenly as the first beep went off.

After a series of beeps the exercise went into level two and it was clear that no one was going to drop out any time soon.

_Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Level 3_

_Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Level 4_

_Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Level 5_

_Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Level 6_

_Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Level 7_

_Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Level 8_

Some people were starting to struggle now. Thomas had a quick look around him and noticed that James was still going on like this was nothing. Jesus how does he do this? Thomas wondered. All of that moaning and sleeping in and going out like this and he can still do a bleep test like this without too much difficulty.

_Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Level 9_

_Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Level 10_

_Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Level 11_

People were starting to drop out, Thomas noted whilst still trying to maintain his rhythm. He had a look around for James again and seen him still going strong. Thomas legs were starting to burn and he could feel the strain in his calves every time he had to turn around at the bottom and the stretching of his hamstrings as he went into full pace making it from one side to the other. Although he did not want to think it he was starting to tire himself, and it wouldn't be long before he had to drop out like the other recruits before him.

_Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Level 12_

_Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Level 13_

The majority of recruits had dropped out now and Thomas could feel the sweat dripping down over his eyes. As much as he tried to keep going his legs eventually gave out and limped across to the side before sitting down to catch his breath like many of the others were doing. As he was catching his breath he looked over at the few people that were still running and was surprised to see James still running strong. "That idiot complaining when he can run like this." He said to himself unaware that the instructor was coming up behind him.

"Not bad Red Head, truth be told if you won I was going to give you an extra exercise for laughing at the start, but you did well Thomas." The instructor said, letting his personality slip and talking at an even level for once.

"Thank, You, Sir" Thomas said whilst still trying to catch his breath as his instructor walked away.

"Level 14!" The instructor then shouted to the recruits that were left.

_Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Level 15_

_Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Level 16_

There were only two recruits left now and Thomas was surprised to see that James was one of them. By now most of his peers that had dropped out early had now caught their breath back and were cheering on the two that were left. A good show of solidarity the instructor thought to himself, and I didn't even need to prompt them to do it this year. Looks like this is a promising lot indeed. Thomas however was amazed at James' focus and the way he was running back and forth was very reminiscent of a machine just doing its job running back and forth. The other recruit was running just as well as James and had very short white hair, he was also slightly shorter than James but wasn't stereotypically short by any stretch of the imagination. Suddenly half way through level 16 both of them stopped on the same round and crashed out onto the ground trying to catch their breath.

"Not too far off the record" The instructor muttered, "And I thought they were going to break it for a moment there."

Thomas looked around and seen two people walk over the recruit next to James and help him up and off to the side. After noticing no one else was going to help James he got up and walked over to him and looked down at him laying on the floor gasping for air. "Not bad" Thomas said offering his hand to his friend to help him up.

"Thanks" James somehow managed to get out before getting up with the help of Thomas. Problem was once he was up he was about to fall down again but was quickly grabbed and held up by Thomas as he semi carried him off to the side.

"A very good group of recruits this year." The instructor thought to himself for a moment. "Guess I'm going to have to be harder on these guys than I was on last years recruits" he chuckled to himself. After seeing that most of the recruits were standing again he turned to the group. "That was a good show for a group of maggots. Now get changed and get yourselves back to 2C47, you're next session awaits." As the recruits walked away he chuckled to himself. Poor guys, they thought I was an evil bastard giving them a bleep test, wait till they meet the academics.

20 minutes later Thomas was sitting in a chair in the middle of same lecture theatre that they were in earlier. The crowd of recruits was much quieter than they were earlier. A sign that they were tired from the ordeal of running the bleep test. They all watched as an old man with a white coat and long white hair walked in. He first stood still looking at the class, before announcing into the microphone. "My name is professor Leiman, and I am here to give you you're first lecture on trigonometry and calculus."

The backlash of views coming from the red coat recruits was varied. James being one of the loudest shouted. "We are soldiers damn it, fighters, why do we have to know about that stuff?"

The old professor smirked to himself, this was clearly a question he had been forced to field before and knew exactly how to answer it. "Imagine this, you're operating system is damaged in combat and you are forced to fire you're weapon manually. You're enemy is 30 meters away from you and 10 meters above you, what angle will you have to fire you're weapon at to make a hit." James of course couldn't respond to the question and was stunned into silence. The rest of the lecture hall started laughing at his recklessness but was soon silenced when the professor challenged any of them to answer. "Now if we can get on with the lecture in peace..." But he was stopped when he seen a hand go up from a teen in the middle of the lecture hall. "What is it recruit?" the old professor asked sharply expecting more complaining about having to learn maths.

"18.5 degrees sir" Thomas said.

"excuse me?" the professor replied.

"The answer, 18.5 degrees."

The old professor thought in his head for a moment before realising that the student was right. "Very good, at least one recruit in this room shows promise" the professor replied before carrying on with his lecture.

An hour later Thomas and James were walking down a corridor away from the lecture theatre they were just in.

"How the hell did you know the answer to that question?" James asked still not having a clue about anything that was just discussed in the lecture.

"Wouldn't be a very good long ranged fighter if I didn't know what angle to shoot someone at would I?" Thomas replied.

"Bah, any ways you gonna go get ready to come out to the common room tonight?"

"Nah, can't, not yet any ways. I've got a lecture on tactical forecasting to go to now."

"Tactical forecasting?"

"Yeah, upon entry I passed an exam to be selected as a team leader – so I have to do a few extra classes, one of them being tactical forecasting, its not just mobile suit pilots that are there though, its a requirement for ship captains and the like to have passed this course as well."

"Heh, extra classes, no thanks, I'll see ya back at the dorm later."

"Yeah, catch ya later."

Thomas then walked into what was a much smaller room than what his previous lecture theatre had been. He took a random seat in almost exactly the middle of the room and watched as the room gradually filled up with people. Taking a look around he could see a few recruits with the red trims of red coat recruits, the rest of the recruits there were wearing black trims signalling that they would be in command positions upon completion of their training. When everyone was seated the lecturer walked in and started talking.

_50 minutes later_

"And that is why against a small force it is always a strong yet simple tactic to surround the enemy and attack whist moving in. Next lecture we will be discussing strategies that are designed to push the enemy into a confined space to allow this tactic to be implemented. Oh, and one last thing, the person sitting next to you is now the person you will be sitting next to every week to discuss strategies on as well as completing a joint presentation at a later date. Dismissed."

Thomas turned to his right and seen a woman who had turned to her left, also looking at him. She had long brown hair, brown eyes and was wearing a ZAFT captains uniform. She was older than the majority of the young teenagers that were seen around, Thomas guessed she was around 24. Clearly she was here to pass the course to make her way up the command structure Thomas thought to himself. From her eyes she seen a very young recruit that was sitting the course. He appeared to be in very good shape, but all reds were she reminded herself. But his relative only seemed to remind her that she would soon be half way through her twenties already.

"Nice to meet ya, I'm Thomas," He said offering his hand.

"Commander Emma Atata" She replied and watched as the colour drained a bit from the young recruits face as he had clearly forgotten that she was already part of the command structure. "Just call me Emma" she replied with a smile.

"Sorry" was all Thomas had time to say before he was interrupted by the PA system.

"This is a call for all first year Red recruits, could all recruits please meet in room 2C47, I repeat all first year reds to 2C47."

"Sorry," Thomas said again, "Nice to meet ya though" and left to at a quick walk to get to the required room.

"See ya next time!" she shouted as he was getting away and smiled again before packing up her things and leaving.

Upon entering the required room Thomas realised he was one of the last there but quickly spotted James sitting half way from the front off to the side. "Yo" he said as he was walking up and took the seat next to James.

"Hey, any idea what this is about?" James asked.

"Got about as much information as you."

"Well lets see what happens."

About 5 minutes later Captain Sylvia walked in and the whole room stood and saluted before sitting down again. "Good evening recruits, I hope you have all performed well on you're first day. All the instructors seem to think we have a promising year. In light of this I have decided to reward you guys by introducing you to someone a day early. As many of you will know each year is assigned a volunteer from ZAFT proper, a soldier of high commendation and respect so as to inspire you to reach his/her achievements and follow their high example. This person for the next four years when they are not on missions or other matters will be stationed here and will be able to provide you with advice and guidance on many matters. Without further ado..." On que a ZAFT Red walked in and there were multiple gasps from the crowd. The man had blue hair and had a bit of a worn look to him. The most distinguishing feature though was the FAITH badge that was attached to his uniform and everyone knew that this meant he was in the top elite and trusted. But everyone knew who this was as well, there wasn't a single soldier that hadn't hear the name. "You're representative this year is Athrun Zala."

Athrun now standing in front of the class was muttering underneath his breath. Why did Kira make him do this? He asked himself. He quickly scanned the class and noticed everyone was looking at him, well apart from one kid with short white hair. Weird. Athrun again thought. "I'm here to give advice and share my experiences with you." He said was amazed at the fact he was getting the complete attention of everyone in the class except one. "I'm sure you will be able to find me if you want to talk about anything." With that he walked off to the side and left the class still silent. "Oh Yeah, dismissed." He said before he got out of sight. Damn formalities he thought to himself. Upon seeing a rush of students following him he sighed again. Damn this is going to be a troublesome night.

_A/N: so there is the chapter. Hopefully I have managed to balance out standard military training as well as creating the Academy or "FF8 Garden" view of the academy that I wanted. I didn't get as far through the story as I wanted in this chapter but it appears to be of decent length and it felt like a nice place to finish off when I was writing it. This chapter was made to give a rough idea of what a typical day in the academy is that I felt I had to illustrate at least once. With the foundations down I can now move onto first filling you guys in a lot more on the characters and introduce a handful more as well as moving on with the more interesting parts of the story._

_Hope you guys enjoyed and any constructive criticism would be appreciated._

_Tommo_


	3. Chapter 3

_Hey guys thanks for reading this again, short chapter but this is the first really distinct scene that I imagined in my head before starting to write this and I wanted to make sure I made a good job of it. Thats why this chapter is about 1.5k words shorter than I wanted a normal chapter to be but if people think that this length is all right I may try to do more this length and get chapters out more often. I'm also introducing the soundtrack that I've made into this. For any track I don't have a link for if anyone can find one I would appreciate it._

_(Opening: Making the Pride - Nami Takami (cant find a link on youtube for this ))_

**Cosmic Era 100 : 13th August 22:00**

"Okay guys, clear out! Everyone get back to you're dorms!" one of the stewards shouted.

"Well that was a fun night..." Thomas said turning to James with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. They had come to a large room with a dance floor and lots of rubbish music being played and the place was so packed you couldn't take a step without clashing shoulders with someone. And to make it worse James had spent the whole night looking at girls and giving them marks out of ten. "She's a 7, She's an 8, Oh God! She's a 3, what do you think Thomas?" Over and over again.

"Ah it's not over yet." James said as the pair were walking out of the common room.

"What are you talking about?"

"You'll see" was all James said with a smirk on his face.

"Where exactly are we going?" Thomas asked after a couple of minutes and realising they weren't heading back towards the dorms.

"The academy is built on top of a hill overlooking the sea."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm getting there calm down! In the basement deep inside the hill there is a large room that the recruits found decades ago and turned it into a place were students can go and relax. Think student unions at universities and things like that."

"You're joking right? And the officers don't know about it? " Thomas asked in disbelief.

"That's the impression I got."

The pair then walked into a room that appeared to be some kind of stadium. Everything was very dark because the lights were off but there were some features that Thomas managed to make out. There were screens at the top and two circle shaped machines in the middle. James lead the way down to the side of one of the stands and opened a door which lead down a corridor. About twenty meters down that corridor there was a door. James led the way in through the door and the two were greeted by another fairly busy room. There was a small bar right in front of them and some tables with comfy looking chairs against the wall on the left. The room extended however to the right and at the end of the room there was a balcony. Thomas followed James into the middle of the room and he was amazed that there were so many people here skipping curfew.

"I'm off for a drink, you want anything" James said to a fascinated Thomas.

"Yeah" was all Thomas answered earning a smile from James. Thomas wasn't sure what drink he was going to receive from his friend but he was far to concerned at what was going on around him. He turned around towards the exit of the room and the seats by the side and seen Emma's brown hair and eyes, she was sitting beside a group of older recruits that Thomas figured out had to have been soldiers that were coming back here a second time in search of promotion like her. When she seen him she smiled and waved casually just raising her arm from the table. Thomas was about to wave back when he felt someone bump into him from behind. He turned around and met eyes with a girl with shortish black hair, bangs running down the sides of her cheek and red eyes.

"Sorry" she apologised quickly trying to regain some composure.

Just as Thomas was about to respond two other girls came along and hooked arms with the girl and proceeded to drag her along. "Come on I think I seen that guy with white hair that won the bleep test over there, lets go try to find him." The two new girls said. Thomas watched them walking away, still in awe of the fact that this place existed and failed to see that the girl with red eyes had looked over her shoulder back towards him. With all of the people standing in the middle of the floor and everything going on Thomas suddenly felt overwhelmed with the whole place and felt the need to get out of there. He made his way to the balcony and shut the doors outside and leaned his elbows on the balcony having a look at the view of the sea crashing against the side of the hill that the academy was built on. After what seemed like a few minutes he heard piano music coming from inside which brought him back to his senses enough to realise that there was someone else standing outside with him. He turned his head casually to see who it was and when he realised he felt as though his jaw had hit the floor or something. He was standing outside of the recruits sort of secret getaway out on the balcony with Athrun Zala, his class' mentor in some ways.

"Ah so now you've found me as well, I think that makes the whole class." Athrun said sounding a bit fed up with his whole day.

"Excuse me?" Thomas said not knowing what was going on.

Athrun took a deep breath and another sip of his whisky before continuing, "Since I announced that I was sort of going to be watching over you're class I have had you're fellow class mates hunting me down trying to ask me all kinds of questions and getting to know me. It's kind of troublesome."

Thomas on his part didn't say anything in return he was just so overwhelmed by the fact he was in a meeting place that was supposed to be for recruits, be secret and he was standing on the balcony outside talking to Athrun Zala, who was motoring his class.

"So what are you doing here?" Athrun asked getting fed up of the silence.

"Lost a bet on the bleep test and forced to come out here with my friend – didn't even know this place existed. How do you know about this place Commander Zala?"

"Uh troublesome, he heard Athrun mutter under his breath, first of all like I've told the rest of you're peers, just call me Athrun. Second of all, you don't really believe this place is secret do you?" Upon seeing the blank look on Thomas' face he continued, "I graduated from this place myself a long time ago, many of the instructors are the same, they all know about this place but they all remember themselves from being recruits how important this place is, a place were recruits can get away and have their own space. It keeps them focused as long as they don't spend their whole time here drinking, and if they did do that they would quickly find themselves kicked out anyway."

"Makes sense" was all Thomas said in reply.

"So why did you enrol here Thomas Raiaka?"

"How do you know my name?" Thomas was kind of surprised although he probably would have been able to work it out himself on a normal day.

"Before motoring you're class I had to go over all of you're files to know who I was motoring." Athrun replied .

Thomas now regaining his composure countered Athrun "But if you have read my file then you already know why I am here."

Athrun turned to face Thomas and looked directly into his eyes. "To emulate a father that was killed in battle, you're record says, I'm guessing that that was how he supported you're family when you were growing up and with you're mother now gone as well you need to support you're family." He gave time for Thomas to counter his theory but when he heard no protest he continued.

_(Soldier's Sadness: Rey Za Burrel's Piano "Kiseki" - Kakijima Shinji (.com/watch?v=QNIF4kr8g2c))_

"You're eyes." He turned to face the rest of the room. "I have looked into the eyes of many a soldier." Athrun remember what he has been through back in the past. "I have seen the eyes of civilians forced into combat, the eyes of soldiers wanting to protect their friends, the eyes of politicians struggling to protect their nation and beliefs. I have also seen the eyes of destroyers, some who blinded by hatred seek to destroy an entire race and others who had their ideals twisted against them, and I know very well the eyes of someone who wished for power. When I come here I see the eyes of more soldiers. I see the eyes of soldiers wanting to better themselves to protect, I see the eyes of those that sense adventure, the eyes of people wanting to escape their past, the eyes of people who want to create a new life for themselves and the eyes of those that want to be strong, to be the best." Right then Athrun noticed who was playing the piano, a short boy with yellow hair, reminded him of Nichol and he remember when he, Yzak, Dearka, Rusty and Nichol used to meet up in that very room. He paused to listen for a moment before turning to face Thomas. "When I look into you're eyes I see something I have never seen before, I see nothing, and that scares me. I bet in you're life before coming here you faced no real personal challenge, almost everything you did was easy to you."

"Having you're parents die is never easy" Thomas retorted in a whisper.

"Indeed, but you do not have eyes like I did either. Right now you are a shell, and just like Sylvia I hope that you find something you want to fight for. You will not find any real strength until you do. Anyway, we anticipated everyone would come to see me and although you didn't actively seek me out I need to tell you this anyway, meet up tomorrow in the stadium that you had to go through to get here. I'm going to introduce you guys to one of the more active parts of you're training." Athrun then downed his whisky and stepped back inside with the intention of heading back. "Have a good night" He said looking back over his shoulder before leaving.

"Night, Athrun" Thomas replied watching Athrun walk back into the room.

Just then James walked over to him and handed him a drink. "What you doing out here when everyone else is inside?"

Thomas took the drink and downed it without really looking to see what it was. "I'm heading back, we got a big day tomorrow." With that he walked out of the room and back to the dorms with all of the thoughts in his head. Back in his room he opened his laptop to check for any news from home although he knew there wouldn't be any after he told John not to e-mail him when he was here and soon he fell asleep thinking of his siblings.

_(Ending: Kaze no Kirin – Takahashi Hitomi (no link for this one either ))_

_Thanks for reading guys, as usual comments on anything would be appreciated, also thanks to all the TLW guys and their comments for keeping me motivated in this._

_Tommo _


	4. Chapter 4

_Hi again, thanks for checking this out, so the guys in the RP will know that the zaft mission will be kicking off soon and coming to an interesting point and to be honest I can't see Thomas following the mission to the letter because everything is bound to go wrong in some way. Therefore I want to keep developing his character by keeping this story moving, There is a scene in the chapter after this that I really want to get out before the mission starts because it has some effect on what Thomas' character will probably be like during the mission. The down side of this is that this chapter may seem a little rushed – the little skirmish definitely feels rushed and I struggled a bit during the fight because I wanted to really try to get across how the system works and how realistic it is where as in future battles using the system I will just be able to write it as if it is a normal battle. As always though constructive criticism is appreciated._

_(Opening: Making the Pride - Nami Takami (cant find a link on youtube for this ))_

**Cosmic Era 100 : 13th August 09:00**

And now here they were sitting in the stadium waiting for their tutor to come in. Thomas was sitting quietly at his seat in the stand with the rest of the class with James sitting in his seat sleeping next to him. This finally gave Thomas a better a view of the darkened room that they had to walk through to get to the common room last night. Just as he was trying to make out what the large machines in the middle of the room were Athrun walked in. Thomas immediately elbowed James to wake up which enlisted a groan from the young man until he realised where he was.

"Stay at ease" Athrun said as he walked in hating all the formalities that normally came with his troublesome rank. Wasting no time Athrun went right into today's lesson. Athrun walked into the middle of the room and opened a hatch on one of the machines in the middle which revealed a standard mobile suit cockpit. "This is what we call the virtual mobile suit training system and we use this to train recruits to fight inside mobile suits instead of having idiots that can hardly pilot a mobile suit wrecking a whole military base as I am sure you can understand. The concept is simple, you sit inside the cockpit and it loads up the data of you're mobile suit and from there on then data will be fed into the mobile suit as if you were inside an actual battle. What's more is that these things can be linked together so that you can fight against you're fellow recruits. If you all follow me you will see what I mean." Athrun then walked over to a door and opened it to find that no one was yet following him. "I said follow me recruits."

"Where do you think we are going?" James whispered to Thomas as they were walking through the door and up a flight of stairs.

"How the hell should I know – I've seen about as much as you so far."

Thomas and James walked into a room that was about as big as the one below except where the room below was home to a giant stand – this room housed about 100 of those virtual training system cockpits.

_(Moulding You're Fate (Red 1): The Shaping of the World – Jason Hayes (.com/watch?v=NhrxGCMzRL0)) _

"This is where the majority of mobile suit pilots at the academy spend most of their time." Athrun said to the group. "While in the class rooms you will learn about tactics and other things which the academy says that you have to learn, it is in here that you will hone you're fighting skills inside a mobile suit. For those of you who may think the battles will not be a true reflection of piloting a mobile suit should look at the bars holding the cockpit up. These are used to generate g-force so that it actually feels that you are in a battle. And don't worry, these battles are not meaningless. You're every move inside these cockpits will be recorded and from this as well as win to loss ratios will be recorded and at the end of the semester, the recruit who tops this ranking will pick his own team for next semester. This position will be designated RED-1. Make no mistake, picking you're team is no small thing, when you have harsh times you should help each other and if you are on trouble on the field of battle you want people that you fight well with or have chemistry as so to speak. Now if you will follow me." He looked around and seen that this time the whole class was following him.

Athrun lead the recruits out of the current building and into a huge mechanical bay that had thirty two mobile suits lined up inside one for each member of the class. Thomas had a look around inside the building which smelled distinctly of oil. The sight of thirty two new mobile suits hooked up to computers inside of the bay was an impressive sight indeed.

This is where the mobile suit's for the academy are stored. In this room there is one mobile suit for each of you which has been customised for how we feel you will be likely to fight but fear not. Inside the virtual training system you can customise you're mobile suit and by the time you actually come to flying these mobile suits" Athrun said with his arms pointing at the suits behind him. "they will be customised to how they are inside the training system so you will already be used to piloting you're own personal mobile suit. I am leaving you now to get acquainted with you're mobile suits and the virtual training system, you have the day off from you're regular sessions but those of you with extra sessions will still have to attend them. Dismissed." And Athrun managed to walk out of the building undisturbed for once leaving the recruits in awe of the mobile suits that they would one day be piloting.

Thomas managed to find his mobile suit and stood at the foot of the machine and looked up. "Justice huh?" he said out loud despite knowing that no one would hear him. It was the newer Justice with the Fatum pack, there was a large shield on the left arm and a sniper rifle on the right shoulder. Down the side of the legs there were two rail guns and towards the bottom of the legs were the distinctive shin blades made famous by Infinite Justice. He turned around and sat on the foot of his new mobile suit and looked around at the other mobile suit's in the hangar. Justice, Freedom, Destiny, Saviour, Impulse – they were all here.

Just then James ran over looking worn out. "Wow a Justice as well" he nearly shouted at Thomas. "But yours looks a lot different from mine. Lets go try them out."

"Okay" Thomas replied intrigues himself on how the virtual mobile suit system worked.

They walked back into the room they were previously in and found two empty simulators next to each other. James practically jumped inside his whilst Thomas stepped inside and looked at the screen in front of him. He pull out the keyboard from the side and started looking at his mobile suit in more detail. Indeed he was right about the previous armaments but additionally the bottom of the shield had a beam sabre mounted onto it and there was a double sided beam sabre stored inside the shield itself. Switching over to defensive status of the mobile suit Thomas found out that the frame was equipped with state of the art Variable phase shift armour and there was a lightwave barrier layered over the outside of the shield.

A moment later the screens were showing that he was inside a carrier, or more accurately, he was on the launching catapult of said ship inside his mobile suit. It was then that he heard a female voice coming through the speakers inside the cockpit "Justice, all green, please launch."

_(Thomas' Theme: Counter Attack – Kawai Kenji (.com/watch?v=y7AxjYowNBw))_

Here goes nothing Thomas thought as he raised the throttle forward with his right hand and was immediately struck by a sense of movement propelling himself forward. Just as the speed was evening itself Thomas noted that his sensors were showing him out in space were all around was darkness, at least until an alarm went off behind his right ear. As he turned his mobile suit to the right he spotted another Justice. This one he quickly noticed was carrying a standard beam rifle and what appeared to be a force silhouette attached to the back. Thomas then strafed to the left to try and gain some distance to take aim with his sniper rifle. He closed his left eye as the sight flipped down from his right in front of his right eye and he quickly pressed the trigger with his right hand. Thomas was then struck by the reactive force of the bullet he had fired leaving his mobile suit. "The Gs are so realistic" he said to himself. He watched as the bullet raced towards the other Justice until it moved to dodge at the last second. He fired another two shots that were also dodged until the alarm inside the cockpit went off again to show that there was incoming fire he dodged the first shot by pushing his mobile suit to his right and blocked the second shot with his shield. The other justice showed no sign of letting up however and charged right at him. Thomas quickly reattached his sniper rifle onto his mobile suit and drew his double sided beam sabre just in time to defend against the other beam sabre. Thomas however was being pushed back by the other Justice frame until he also pushed his throttle up to full to even it out. The cockpit he was inside was shaking from the g-force that was being exerted inside the virtual battle. Then just as Thomas was about to be overwhelmed he spotted an opening. As his opponents beam sabre slid to the side Thomas put more pressure onto his guard and managed to push him back, at the same time Thomas launched his mobile suit back so the two Justice frames were heading backwards away from one another creating distance between the two. Thomas drew his sniper rifle again before the other frame had time to react and fired hitting the unsuspecting opponent right inside the chest. He then watched as the mobile suit exploded right in front of his eyes until the lights inside his cockpit went dark and the door popped open.

As Thomas climbed out he suddenly realised how much that had taken out of him and he struggled to catch his breath for a moment. He then spotted James climbing out of the cockpit next to his also breathing heavy with a slight sweat on his brow.

"Damn I need a drink," James exclaimed not even looking at Thomas before walking off in the direction of the common room.

Thomas sighed before walking off in the direction of the common room to follow him. Things were definitely going to get more interesting on base.

_(Ending: Kaze no Kirin – Takahashi Hitomi)_

_Thanks for Reading _

_Tommo_


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